The gullible mermaid
Floating in bliss
Exposed her fragility
For want of a kiss.
Never fall for a writer
Or take his advice—
He’ll break all commitments
Without thinking twice.
So now she’s washed up
On a fictional land
With a handful of words
And a mouthful of sand.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
In the beginning, everything was water.
One lonely night lightning kissed the sea,
Creating the chain that led you to me.
On the day we met they prayed for rain,
Though we had an ocean swirling at our feet—
In the beginning, everything was water.
Love crashed through the walls I’d built,
Drowning me in freedom’s promises.
One lonely night lightning kissed the sea.
I wandered down the abandoned beach.
Each broken shell had a story to tell,
Creating the chain that led you to me.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Cascade poem written for dVerse Tuesday Poetics – the four elements, Go Dog Go Café’s Tuesday Writing Prompt, and the Skeptic’s Kaddish W3 16.
“A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.” ~ James Dickey
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Breathless dreams ignite
Sparks flare from stolen kisses
Morning turns to ash
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
After the shock of seeing the amount of his latest electricity invoice wore off, Ted decided that, in order to save energy going forward, he would… become a vampire. Since he worked at home anyway, choosing his own hours to create marketing copy for travel agencies, he could easily do so by moonlight instead of powering up during daylight hours when energy rates were highest. His salary wasn’t the greatest, but he vastly preferred working on his own to making more money at a corporation where one was required to make constant inane chitchat with fellow employees and suck up to managers. Ted now realized that his introverted, reclusive personality was perfect for his new lifestyle as a vampire, and in a roundabout way he had the electric company’s gouging to thank for that epiphany.
But where to meet a lovely female vampire to assist in his transition? Naturally, being somewhat of a techie, Ted turned to the personal ads, bypassing traditional dating sites for Mystical Match. Here, one could peruse profiles from witches, genies, werewolves, and even some of the minor gods. Ted set his filters to female vampires only, up to 500 years old, as one needed to have some standards, and within a thousand miles. He figured if he connected with the right vamp, she’d have no issue with transforming into a bat or something and flying to him. After all, it was an honor for them to switch someone over.
In no time at all, Ted met Tanya, who was happy to leave her stifling basement apartment in the city for Ted’s home in the ‘burbs. She particularly liked his huge basement, protected from the sun, where they could hang out and watch old movies when they weren’t snoozing during daytime. After his transition, Ted spent most nights working harder than ever in order to pay for all the furniture and what-not Tanya was ordering, but he was happy to have her there. Until today.
“Tanya!” Ted shrieked when he saw his latest invoice from the electric company. “This is three times that huge bill I told you about. What’s going on?”
She shrugged. “It’s probably that huge refrigerator system I had installed. How else are we to keep our blood fresh? I’m certainly not going to go out hunting every night when I’ve gotten hooked on Downton Abbey.”
“You’ve been running the air conditioning all day too,” Ted complained. “Look at this!”
“I’m going through the change,” she said, baring her teeth. “Stop criticizing me.”
Ted began to think he had made a terrible mistake.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Written for Fandango’s Story Starter 59.
Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about. ~ Cory Doctorow
Dr. Tanya continues her Blogging Insights series with the above quote and asks for our thoughts. I thoroughly disagree with it. First, conversation is not possible without content because there’d be nothing to say! I suppose people could discuss the whiteness of a blank page, but other than that…
Second, this reminds me of my annoyance with bloggers and other social media types who are only in it for the hit count. Sure, it’s nice when readers discover my blog and interact with my posts, and I like to believe this is because my efforts to provide good content are appreciated. But some posts get little notice, and that’s OK, since I always write to please myself above all. Comments are welcomed by me, but I still write during weeks when there aren’t as many.
Why? Because content rules! Conversation is the icing frosting on the cupcake. If there’s no cupcake, where is the frosting supposed to go? Note how I changed icing to frosting because I prefer it, particularly buttercream. If you would rather have a glaze, that’s fine, but you’re wrong.
Third, I am aware of the content that other bloggers post, and sometimes it results in my unfollowing them. I try to avoid interacting with racists and other haters; thus, their content precludes conversation (with me). It’s clear to me that content rules every time.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Di @ Pensitivity101 is helping out again this week with Melanie’s Share Your World. Thanks Di! Let’s get started…
1. Do you prefer to live in a single story property like a bungalow, a high rise apartment, or a house?
Currently, I live in a third-floor condo and I enjoy the relative quiet and security up here, a bit away from the street and parking lot. I can hear people in the pool, but the noise is distant and doesn’t bother me. I don’t think I’d want a first-floor apartment, nor would I want something way high up in the sky. I don’t mind a house, but it’s more work with gardening and such. Plus you have to worry more about security. Of course, when I win the Mega-Millions, I won’t need to concern myself with such trivialities as an alarm system, for I will have staff like they do at Downton Abbey.
2. If you won a large amount of money on the lottery, would you want publicity or keep things quiet and low key?
I can’t imagine why anyone would deliberately publicize a lottery win, though you also have to be careful how you go about protecting your privacy (lottery lawyer convicted).
3. How do you like your eggs? (No, this is not a trick question)
I often poach a couple eggs to have with toast. This isn’t my favorite way to have eggs, but it is the most nutritious as I don’t add anything to them. Sometimes though I get crazy and make scrambled eggs in melted butter with shredded cheese, which is so yummy! Naturally, my favorite way to eat eggs is when they’re baked into a cake.
4. If cars were no longer available, what would be your choice of transport?
I took the train to visit my daughter a couple months ago and it was very efficient, so I guess I’d do that. Of course, I’d have to find a way to get to the train station and from the station to my destination. Back in Chicago, all this was pretty easy due to convenient transit schedules for buses and trains, but I don’t think it would be that easy here in SoCal.
5. Gratitude section: I’m very grateful for the improved sleep I’ve been having the last several nights and I sure hope that continues!
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.
I’ve complained about this before, but not on an official Monday Peeve, so it’s fair game. Writing is hard, no disagreement there, but I find it incredibly lazy when plots are continually driven by coincidences. I don’t mind a few sprinkled throughout, but when every twist and turn is due to a misplaced letter or an overheard conversation, it just gets on my nerves.
Currently, I’m watching Downton Abbey, which is a series on Prime about an aristocratic English family and their servants in the early part of the 20th century. I’m enjoying it overall and am on Season 3 out of 6, but sometimes I get annoyed with all the overheard convos and opportune glimpses. The main plot points are carried forward in this way, beginning with S1e1, and it’s too bad that the writer/s couldn’t have come up with more creative devices.
Romance novels are often the same, with our hero/heroine overhearing a snippet of chat as they wander in the gardens, then they leap to an incorrect conclusion, etc. It’s so irritating!
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Welcome back to my Genre Bingo Challenge. I’m happy to report that I have awarded two books in a row five stars. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, woohoo!
1. Upgrade by Blake Crouch is the novel I chose for the science fiction square. It also was my July Book of the Month Club pick. Oh my gosh, I loved this story! We follow along as protag Logan Ramsay gets involuntarily “upgraded” with a virus that alters his DNA. After initially feeling horrible, Logan begins to appreciate his enhanced status, even if only to track down the rogue scientist behind it. It was really neat how we witnessed Logan’s transformation via his improved chess games and other mental gymnastics. Wouldn’t it be awesome to instantly recall every word you’ve ever read, to quickly absorb dense text, and to accurately predict the behavior of others from minute changes in their facial expressions? The higher the IQ the better, right? Or perhaps not. Five stars!
2. Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. I also gave this book 5 stars, but for entirely different reasons. I bought it by mistake for a philosophy meetup. We were supposed to read a different book by Godfrey-Smith, but I thought it was this one. I may buy the other one now since this one is so interesting. It certainly is not a fast, fun read like the novels I’m used to; it’s dense, scientific writing, and it took me a long time to get through (like 3 weeks!). I confess I read a poetry book in the middle as a palate-cleanser. Generally, when I’m reading a fast-paced romance or mystery/suspense novel, I don’t pause on each page to digest what I’ve read and think about philosophy ~ I just gobble up the words like potato chips until I’m done.
PGS begins at the beginning of life in the sea, of which there are no hard facts, just hypotheses. This is the opposite of what passes for nonfiction reading nowadays with people spouting opinions as facts and flinging out memes instead of trying to figure out what’s actually true. Real scientists don’t do that. They are open to new information and changes to interpretations they previously held. Other Minds is probably not a good choice for anyone who believes a supernatural entity created life by fiat, but it’s fascinating to someone like me who hungers for information about evolution. For example, why does the octopus, with its advanced nervous system, have such a short life (one to two years)? Generally, we see animals with more complex systems living longer than simpler animals. Different hypotheses are proposed regarding the octopus life span.
The book is mainly about the cephalopod class of animals (octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus), but loads of other scientific data are present as well, including information about brains generally, consciousness, language development, etc. I highly recommend it to the intellectually curious among my readers. In a weird way, Other Minds was a great complement to Upgrade in that they both explored various aspects of mental development. I didn’t plan that, lol ~ I’m just trying to fill out my bingo card!
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Everybody screamed
When I kissed the teacher
And they must have thought they dreamed
When I kissed the teacher
It’s no secret that the Mamma Mia movies are at the top of my favorite list, so when I saw Jim Adam’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt today, naturally I thought of MM2.
“When I Kissed the Teacher” was written by ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson for ABBA’s album 1976 Arrival. It’s the opening track on the album as well as the first song in MM2. Lily James sings lead here (I love her singing and acting!), and the whole number is super fun. The lyrics are slightly changed from the original.
I was in a trance
When I kissed the teacher
Suddenly I took the chance
When I kissed the teacher
Leaning over me
She was trying to explain the laws of geometry
And I couldn’t help it
I just had to kiss the teacher
Fun note: Benny produced the song for the movie and Björn plays one of the teachers in the skit.
The original song didn’t do that great on the charts, though it was highly regarded by some critics. Of course others have to remind us of harassment blah blah blah. In my opinion, ABBA songs and the MM movies are simply fun and can be enjoyed without angsting over any implications about our culture or deeper meanings. Sometimes a feather boa is just a feather boa. In any case, the Arrival album is one of ABBA’s most successful with loads of hits and a gold certification.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
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Light Motifs II 